Macron gifts Chinese president Xi Jinping Romanée-Conti 1978

French president Emmanuel Macron presented Chinese president Xi Jinping with a rare bottle of Romanée-Conti 1978 in Shanghai this week while marking a new trade deal.

French president Emmanuel Macron and Chinese president Xi Jinping toast a new trade deal in Shanghai

Macron brought the prized bottle of DRC to a private dinner on 5 November with Xi Jinping after the leaders enjoyed Cheval Blanc 2006 and Louis Latour Corton Grancey Grand Cru 2010 at a wine tasting in Shanghai.

The 1978 vintage of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Romanée-Conti is now so rare that at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong this January, a single bottle fetched £18,400.

The third wine the pair enjoyed during the meeting was Gérard Bertrand’s Château L’Hospitalet, La Clape 2016 from the Languedoc, proving that the southern French region is being taken more seriously on a global scale as a fine wine producer.

The three wines were cherry picked by Shanghai-based sommelier, Jean-Marie Pratt, who works for fine wine distributor and consultancy firm Liber Wines.

The leaders were in Shanghai to forge a new trade deal between the EU and China to protect against food and drink counterfeiting of protected names, from Champagne and Bordeaux to Scotch whisky.

The deal gives better legal protection for 100 of Europe’s Geographical Indications (GIs) in China, and does the same for 100 Chinese GIs in EU member states.

This isn’t the first time the pair have cracked open fine French wine together – at a dinner on the French riviera earlier this year Macron served Xi Jinping a rare vintage from revered Pomerol estate, Petrus.